Caretaker President David Granger has hired a United States-based lobbying firm to engage the US State Department on behalf of the coalition A Partnership for National Unity, Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) in a contract paid for by Government.
Documents seen by INews show that the contract was engaged by Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon, and involved Washington DC-based lobbying firm JJ&B LLC.
The firm bills itself as an investment bank based in Washington DC that lists its services as specializing in “assisting small and medium sized enterprises, serving as a one stop shop for finance, law, lobbying, and public relations.”
That contract is dated March 26 last for an initial retainer of US$40,000 for the month of April.
Under the terms of the agreement, the US-based lobbying firm is expected to make contact with officials in the executive and legislative branches of the US Government in order to seek resolution of disputes regarding’s Guyana’s recent presidential elections.
Additionally, the company, as part of its modus operandi, has employed a ‘Guyana Situation’ in a Guyana Dossier Elections 2020 that was prepared by JJ&B LLC for the Guyana Government.
Included in the dossier seen by this publication is a series of correspondences that indicate the brief on Guyana was submitted to the US Lobbyists by a Michael Granger, and claims that should the Opposition -Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) take the reins of power as a result of the March 2, Elections, then Russia and China will be in control of Venezuela to Suriname.
The document is said to be prepared on behalf of Guyana, according to LL&B, whose principals are listed as John M. and James J. Albertine, and Bart S. Fisher.
The document seen by this publication states pellucidly, “this material is distributed by JJ&B, LLC on behalf of Guyana.”
It bears however, the ‘Palm and Key’ logo for the coalition A Partnership for National Unity/ Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC).
According to the correspondence documented along with the dossier, ‘The Guyana Situation’ that was sent to the firm by ‘Michael Granger’ on March 30, 2020.
It was later forwarded from Albertine to Michael Horder—the Legislative Director in the Office of Congressman Kenneth Michael Conaway.
According to which timestamp insignia on the document seen by INews, it was received by the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) Unit of the United Stated National Security Division on March 31, 2020.
Granger claims in the document that after a “free and fair’ elections, it was the PPP which sought to derail the elections results.
Presenting an APNU+AFC vantage for the US Government, the ‘Guyana Situation’ presented by Michael Granger alleges that Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has been working actively to undermine US interests and has been seen as allies to both Venezuelan Leaders Nicolas Maduro and the Late Hugo Chavez.
This, in addition to promoting Chinese interests in Guyana, such as with the allocation of one million hectares of forest lands to Chinese businesses.
Notably, the document names President David Granger as a US Citizen, and states that the APNU/AFC Government is pro-US States Friendly Government, pointing to a news report referencing Donald Trump lauding Guyana for its democratic values.
Lobbyist represented genocidal Govt
In an article published by the Washington Post on December 14, 2011, it was stated that the Obama Administration had allowed the Republic of Sudan to hire its first US lawyer in years, prompting strong objections from human rights groups and some members of Congress.
According to the Washington Post article, Bart S. Fisher, an international trade lawyer, was being paid US$20,000 a month by Sudan to help the strife-torn African nation in its attempts to have US economic sanctions lifted and be removed from the State Department’s list of terrorism-sponsoring governments, according to federal registration documents.
The hiring had angered US human rights activists and some lawmakers because of the Sudanese regime’s history of alleged genocide and other atrocities against its citizens during a decades-long civil war, the Washington Post article stated.
According to the Washington Post article, fighting had flared again in 2011 along the border with newly independent South Sudan, displacing an estimated 400,000 people and prompting new accusations of indiscriminate bombing and illegal killings by the Khartoum government.
The article stated that: Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), a longtime critic of the Sudanese regime, attacked Fisher in the House and during a news conference…for agreeing to work for “a genocidal government” that “has blood on its hands.” “I don’t know how Mr Fisher sleeps at night,” Wolf said on the House floor Tuesday, adding later: “If he has received one penny from the Government of Sudan, he should return it immediately.”
